Students add historical events to a timeline on the Washington Avenue Bridge, part of the Institute for Advanced Study's two-year symposium on time.

Meeting of the minds

The Institute for Advanced Study explores the boundaries between academic disciplines

By Jim Thorp

Sept. 22, 2006 (Updated Dec. 8, 2006)

On Sept. 19, 2006, pedestrians on the Washington Avenue Bridge
were given the chance to re-write history--with sidewalk chalk.
Historic and geologic timelines running the length of the bridge
gave passersby a first-hand look at how our perception of time
differs based on scale: eras and epochs versus ages and years.

The timeline event kicked off the Institute for Advanced Study's
2006-08 University Symposium, an interdisciplinary look at how we
perceive time. The idea behind the symposium and the institute is
simple: To bring diverse scholars together to help each other--and
us--think in new ways.

Nothing but time According to University of
Minnesota history professor and IAS director Ann Waltner, time was
selected to spark discussions between disciplines as diverse as
geology, philosophy, physics and dance.

"We have an interdisciplinary group of 45 people on our
brainstorming list, helping us come up with ideas for speakers and
events," she says. "The first time we got together, I realized I
didn't know most of the faculty in there. It's been really
engaging."

According to Waltner, time itself is one of the factors driving
the need for promote interaction across disciplines.

"Most disciplines are fairly new," she says. "Anthropology has
been around since the late 19th century; ethnic and women's
studies, only since the early 20th century. Some of the
sub-disciplines in the biological sciences are just a few years
old."

As a result, Waltner says that scholars fight a constant battle
to define their expertise and distinguish their work from that of
more-established or better-known disciplines.

"You see a fair amount of 'patrolling the borders' by people
working in these fields, trying to keep people from saying, 'OK,
now how is that anthropology?' While that may be good for the
discipline, it's not good for knowledge. ... That's why spaces [and
programs] like this are so important."

ABOUT IAS
The Institute for Advanced Study:

>> Brings together exciting new work from
across the University community.

>> Provides a place where faculty and
students can meet for presentations, performances and
discussions.

>> Sponsors "Research and Creative
Collaboratives" in which scholars and artists come together to work
on interdisciplinary projects.

For more information on the IAS-sponsored University Symposium,
click here.

The big picture Interdisciplinary thinking
benefits students and the public, too, as diverse perspectives
often yield more comprehensive solutions to big problems. Some
collaborations form around a specific issue that demands diverse
expertise; others, like bioethics, evolve in response to other
developments and become disciplines in their own right.

The IAS promotes a different approach, encouraging scholars to
view topics through the eyes of their peers for the sake of
sparking interaction and new thinking. For example, throughout the
2006-07 academic year, choreographer Carl Flink will host a series
of open rehearsals for a work in progress called "Wreck," an
evening-length dance theater piece, set in the final moments of
life aboard a sunken ship and scheduled to premier in its final
form April.

"A core interdisciplinary group will be watching the four open
rehearsals and participating in discussions afterward about how
time is represented in the performance," says Waltner. "These
discussions will inform the final composition, with Carl serving as
the interpreter and mediator, taking the group's feedback and
interpreting it through his choreography.

"Or not!" she laughs. "Our fellows don't always agree. One of
the ways we identify presenters is to ask the group, 'Who would you
like to have a conversation with?' Some of these people have very
different opinions the issues."

The resulting tension can fuel creativity and innovation within
disciplines as well as between them, which is good for everyone
over the long term.

Glimpse of the future? Waltner describes
scholarship as being question- or problem-focused. The various
disciplines provide specific tools for addressing the problem or
question, but if scholars stay within their disciplinary boxes,
they may find themselves trying to fix brand-new problems using the
same old tools.

That's not to say disciplines should fall by the wayside,
however--students and society may benefit from this broad-based
approach to problem-solving, but many employers still seek
specialists, and graduates are still expected to have a degree "in
something."

To help tie programs like the University Symposium to student
teaching and learning, the IAS develops curricula around specific
events and topics, enabling students to earn credits for their own
interdisciplinary explorations. And while the institute is only in
its second year, it serves as an example for other such institutes
under development as a result of the University's Strategic
Positioning process.

The biggest challenge for IAS has been fostering collaboration
beyond the walls of the College of Liberal Arts.

"There are still people who think we are a CLA institute," she
says. "Sixty percent of what we do in the arts and humanities, but
in fact, some of our most successful lecturers have been by
scientists."

Topics of these lectures included Pluto's status as a dwarf
planet, research into Alzheimer's disease, social interactions
between female chimps, and evidence suggesting that Abraham Lincoln
may have suffered from ataxia.

"You might ask, 'What difference does it make if Lincoln had
ataxia?'" Waltner says. "But we had an advocate for people with
disabilities saying, 'If we can point to Lincoln as someone who had
this condition and still accomplished everything he did, we change
people's perceptions.' It matters!

"We know that, from a faculty standpoint, the most important
things we do are to give people money and time off. But we've been
pretty successful so far in getting people to talk and interact in
ways they wouldn't otherwise."